Nasrin Sotoudeh: Iran's Mandela

Monday September 21 marks the UN General Assembly‘s commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the UN. It also marks the 42nd day of Nasrin Sotoudeh’s hunger strike. Iran’s leading women rights lawyer is demanding the release of political prisoners during the COVID pandemic. Who is the woman described as Iran’s Mandela? Why does the case of Sotoudeh and Iran’s political prisoners matter? And why must the world's leaders, gathered at the UN, defend the UN Charter - principles of law, rights, dignity and freedom - enshrined in one woman‘s body and beliefs? View our discussion with Karin Karlekar, Director of Free Expression at Risk Programs At PEN America; Amir Soltani, Iranian-American writer and filmmaker, and author of Zahra’s Paradise; the Hon. Irwin Cotler, Canada’s former justice minister and attorney general, Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) and part of the legal team representing Sotoudeh internationally; Roya Boroumand, Executive Director, Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran; Ladan Boroumand, co-founder and senior fellow at the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center; and Sherman Teichman, Senior Fellow of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre, and Founding President of The Trebuchet. This event is in support of PEN America’s petition demanding Sotoudeh's immediate and unconditional release, signed among many others by Kweku Mandela, Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, Hillary Clinton, Geralyn Dreyfous, Azar Nafisi, Samantha Power, and Gloria Steinem. Please sign the PEN petition here: https://pen.org/sign-now-iran-must-release-nasrin-sotoudeh/

On August 10th, Nasrin Sotoudeh began a hunger strike to protest the conditions and risk of COVID-19 infection in Tehran’s Evin prison, where she is currently being held. Nasrin was arrested and sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, on charges of acting against Iran’s national security through her advocacy on behalf of detained women who had protested the compulsory hijab law. 

We have become involved in the PEN campaign to bring attention and support to the woman called “Iran’s Mandela,” through the intervention of Amir Soltani, a dear beloved longtime friend and a former student from my first full year at Tufts University, 1985-86. Amir has been a consistent human rights campaigner and activist whose consuming passion has been to restore dignity and justice to people.  Here is but one example – Zahra’s Paradise.

On September 21st, 42 days into Nasrin’s hunger strike, we convened the first in a series of webinars with PEN America, featuring a panel with Amir and other new and old friends:

• Karin Karlekar, Director of Free Expression at Risk Programs at PEN America. 

  Here is the PEN America petition demanding Nasrin’s release, signed among many others by Kweku Mandela, Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, Hillary Clinton, Geralyn Dreyfous, Azar Nafisi, Samantha Power, and Gloria Steinem.

• The Honourable Irwin Cotler, former justice minister and attorney general of Canada, Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) and Nasrin’s international legal counsel. 

• Roya Boroumand, Executive Director, and Ladan Boroumand, co-founder and Senior Fellow, Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.

  ABC’s goal is to "prepare for a peaceful and democratic transition in Iran and build a more just future in which citizens’ rights are respected and mass killings and crimes against humanity belong in the history books.” Here is ABC’s library documenting pro-democracy movements and human rights violations in Iran.

  Here is ABC’s report of the threat of COVID in Iran’s prisons.

As part of Convisero’s effort, we have also reached out to secure support and social media activity from Samantha Power, Ken Roth, Michael Ignatieff, Jianli Yang, the Human Rights Foundation, and the Senior Fellows of the Wallenberg Centre.